Tinctures

Last revised April 1997

The Basic Tinctures

Colors are called Tinctures in heraldry (émaux, or enamels, in
French). Traditionally, in French and Anglo-Norman heraldry, they are subdivided
into metals, colors and furs. The following table gives the names in the
various languages. It also displays the traditional hatching method for
indicating colors in black-and-white illustrations. This method is usually
attributed to the Jesuit S. da Pietra Santa (1638) although it was in use
earlier. Its widespread adoption did not come until the early 18th c.,
but its use is now universal.

English

French

German

Dutch

Metals

Métaux

Metalle

Metalen

Or

Or

Gold

Goud

yellow

Argent

Argent

Silber

Zilver

white

Colors

Couleurs

Farben

Kleuren

Gules

gueules

Rot

Keel (rood)

red

Azure

azur

Blau

Azuur (blauw)

blue

Sable

sable

Schwarz

Sabel (zwart)

black

Vert

sinople

Grün

Sinopel (groen)

green

Purpure

pourpre

Purpur

Purper

purple

Furs

Fourrrures

Pelzwerk

Pelswerk

Ermine

hermine

Hermelin

Hermelijn

Vair

vair

(Eisenhut)feh

Vair

Note that the colors shown here are merely indicative. Since the concept
of primary colors appears in the 18th century at the earliest, no one could
precisely define colors until then. The actual shades of color used can
range widely, depending on tastes and circumstances. Thus, the choice of
a particular shade is a matter of aesthetics.

The component colors of the furs can be changed to produce other furs,
such as ermines (contre-hermine in French, Gegenhermelin
in German), erminois and pean (which are read as ... herminé
de ... in French). Likewise, a pattern similar to vair but with different
colors will be read as vairy of ... and ... (vairé de
... et de ... in French, Eisenhutbuntfeh in German).

Other Tinctures

Those tinctures are pretty much well established. Anglo-Norman heraldry
uses the term proper to mean that a charge is represented with its
usual, or natural, or expected colors; in French, the charge would be said
to be au naturel.

Beyond that, some tinctures are occasionally found, such as sanguine
(between red and purple, also called murrey) and tenny (orange,
also called orangé). Whether those two are really tinctures is a
matter of dispute. Clayhills, of Innergowrie, Scotland, bears: Per bend
sanguine and vert, two greyhounds courent bendways argent (the only
known use of the tincture in the Lyon Register of Scottish arms). Tickell
in England bears: Argent a maunch tenné. But examples remain
rare, and these two tinctures are mainly mentioned in connection with the
rather dubious concept of abatements (see A.C.
Fox-Davies' Complete Guide to Heraldry, p.72). Woodward cites the
Prussian counts of Bose: Azure a Latin cross patée alésée
tenny. Bose in Saxony (counts in 1715) bear this coat in one of their
quarters (Rietstap).

French blazon uses the term carnation for flesh tones, and also
refers to the tincture orange. German arms sometimes use Braun
and Eisen (brown and grey respectively), although Eisen seems to
be restricted to helmets and other metal objects, and could therefore be
seen as a form of "proper".

Fur proper, treated as a tincture, appears in a few German coats: Neuburg
in Austria (per fess gules and fur proper), Schwemke in Westphalia
(per fess or a lion passant guardant gules and fur proper), Jarsdorff
in Franconia (quarterly fur proper in the form of scales and gules),
Storck von Plankenberg in Styria (Fur proper a pale gules).

Exotic Colors

Very rare colors which occasionally appear are (from Woodward's Treatise):

amaranth or columbine: field in a coat granted to a Bohemian
knight in 1701,

bleu céleste or sky-blue: Cinti or Cini in Florence bears
per pale azure and bleu-celeste an estoile counterchanged, although
other sources give the second tincture as or,

cendré or ash-colored: found in several German coats,
for example the barons Aschau in Austria, over all an inescutcheon cendré
with a mound of three hillocks or (note the canting arms),

brunâtre or brown: found in a Silesian coat.

For further discussion of etymology, meaning and examples, see the tinctures:

The Tincture Rule

Textbooks never fail to spell out the "Tincture Rule", namely
that metal should not be placed on metal, nor color on color. The rule
is meant to apply to blatant cases, such as: azure a lion gules.
The rule is far from absolute, however, and there are many counter-examples
in all sorts of countries (in fact, the following families bear Azure
a lion gules according to Rietstap: Avila in Castile, Bemdorf
in Saxony, Betti in Florence, Christol in Toulouse, Molnet in Lorraine
and Strodl in Erlangen).

The rule of tincture considers furs to be "amphibious", and
they can go on metal or color. Fur on fur occurs: Fox-Davies cites the
coat of Richardson: sable two hawks belled or, on a chief indented ermine
a pale ermines and three lions heads counterchanged. A more spectacular
example, however, is offered by the arms of the city (or the advocate)
of Bregenz in the 15th c.
Wappenrolle
von Zurich: vair a pale ermine (both furs are depicted proper).
You can see the picture
for yourself (it's Strip II front page 1, number 32: 2d row, 1st coat of the first picture).